What to Sell on Amazon FBA This Year

One of the main factors that will determine your success as an Amazon seller is what products you choose to sell. To make enough profit for your business to be worth all the work involved, you need to find products that have the right combination of popularity, competitiveness, and price. Your competitors are all trying to do the same, which makes the decision even trickier.

And, on top of that, you need to factor FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) fees into the equation as well. If you source the wrong products and they end up sitting in an Amazon warehouse for months on end, you’re stuck paying for storage until they sell. Products that are costly to package and ship due to their size and weight will cost more in fees, too. Simply put, you have to choose wisely. Keep reading to learn what to sell on Amazon FBA (and why!).

What to Sell on Amazon FBA: 6 Key Factors to Consider

Here are some key things to keep in mind as you look for the best products to sell on Amazon FBA.

Popularity

You can’t sell something nobody wants to buy. You’ll have a much easier time selling products that customers already know they want. So, the first thing you want to consider is product popularity. You can get an idea of what's selling well by reviewing an item's Amazon sales rank. The marketplace's Best Seller list is another highly recommended resource.

Price

Amazon customers are always looking for a good deal. You need to find products you can sell for enough money to make a decent profit after your various costs and fees.

A new seller will likely struggle to make enough selling low-priced products under $10.

But if you price items too high, you're immediately shrinking your buying pool. The right pricing strategy is crucial for making money, and it starts with finding products you can buy and sell at the right price.

Weight

With eCommerce, shipping concerns have to be top of mind. For FBA products, package dimensions are one of the main factors that determine your cost in fees. Choosing products that have Low-Price FBA fees will minimize your costs and increase your profits.

Quality

Quality is key. If you end up choosing a low-quality product, any momentary success you have will be short-lived. Amazon shoppers are avid reviewers, and nearly 80% of consumers read Amazon reviews before making a purchase. If your product is lacking in any way, buyers will let you (and everyone else) know. This can seriously impact your sales. Sourcing a quality product from the get-go drastically improves your chances of receiving positive reviews, which in turn leads to more sales.

Competition

Choosing a popular product means facing tough competition from all of the other sellers with the same idea. If you have so many competitors that your products never manage to win the Buy Box or show up on the first page of Amazon's search results, you won’t make enough sales. There's a fine line between having a healthy amount of competition and so much that you can never get off the ground. Do your best to find it.

Profitability

All of the other factors on this list come back to this one: how much profit can you make on a product after your own costs? Can you charge enough to offset all your fees and expenses and still make enough sales?

Choosing the Best Products for Amazon FBA Means Doing Your Homework

Market research will help you uncover the best products for Amazon FBA.

As you dig into the data, you'll learn the different kinds of products people are buying, how competitive they are, and the costs associated with each one.

There are many tools available that can help. For example, using Amazon's Product Opportunity Explorer allows you to hone in on under-served product categories that could become very profitable. Or, you could use eComEngine's FeedbackFive software to identify trends in customer reviews and make smarter product decisions moving forward.

Just keep in mind that while performing market research is good for identifying the types of products to sell, you still need to verify that the items are legit. Vet suppliers and perform test buys to see these items for yourself. You can do everything else right, but if the products themselves are no good, your business will fall apart.

Now that you know what to sell on Amazon FBA, we invite you to learn more about how to increase your sales. You may also find our free Amazon FBA calculator to be very helpful!